Not many people spend much time reading the book of Ecclesiastes but I have found several verses in there that have hit home for me. One of those spots is chapter 3 verses 12 and 13. “I know that there is nothing better for them than to rejoice and to do good in one’s lifetime; moreover, that every man who eats and drinks sees good in all his labor – it is the gift of God.”
To see good in one’s labor, to rejoice at a job well done, this is a gift from God. I want this gift.
To want to look back over my day and be pleased with it can be a pride impulse, but it doesn’t have to be. Solomon, the wisest man on earth, said it is a gift from God. But this verse is hemmed in by these two: “He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart, yet so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end.” And this one: “ I know that everything God does will remain forever; there is nothing to add to it and there is nothing to take from it, for God has so worked that men should fear Him.”
God has done it all so that I have nothing to boast about. Just as salvation is totally by grace and leaves no room for boasting, every day of my life, every work of my hands – these are a gift from God, totally by Him, no room for boasting.
And yet to boast in it is a gift. To think that rejoicing in a job well done is pride is actually to give myself far too much credit. It is to assume that I was the one who did the work, therefore being pleased with the work is self-congratulations. Actually, according to Solomon, God has done it. There is nothing to add to it, nothing I can take away from it. All I can do is do the work and rejoice it in, knowing that both doing and rejoicing are gifts from God. And so I want to look back at today and see that God has worked. I want to see that God is good, now and always. I want to worship in every moment, for every moment, for every job well done. Praise be to God for His indescribable gift.